Fable
People in the toolbox and people on the roster
Old Zhou ran a small assembly workshop in the suburbs. There wasn't much equipment in the workshop, but in front of each machine sat a toolbox. Inside the toolboxes were wrenches, screwdrivers, measuring instruments, and a few operation manuals. Every day the workers came on shift, picked the right tools from the toolbox, and assembled parts into products according to the order drawings.
Later, business improved, and Old Zhou decided to expand. He brought in a consultant. The consultant flipped through the workshop roster and said: you have too few people here; you should hire several dedicated roles: quality inspector, dispatcher, and packer. Old Zhou followed the advice and added three names to the roster.
Something strange happened. The newly arrived quality inspector stood at the end of the assembly line every day, yet held a measuring instrument from the same toolbox. The dispatcher also flipped through the same operations manual, only drawing a few more arrows on the workshop whiteboard. The packing machine the packer used was originally shared by the workshop.
At the end-of-month meeting, Finance asked Old Zhou: under which account do the wages of quality inspectors, dispatchers, and packers go? Old Zhou said they are workers, so labor cost. Finance asked again: what about the cost of calibrating the measuring instrument each time? The cost of updating the operation manual? The maintenance cost of the toolbox? Old Zhou paused, then said those were equipment costs.
In the second month, the consultant came again and said they should equip the quality inspector with a dedicated set of measuring equipment. Old Zhou finally caught on: no. The quality inspector is not one person; he is a combination of capabilities—reading drawings, using measuring instruments, filling out reports, judging tolerances. Each of these capabilities has a corresponding tool in the toolbox. Adding a name to the roster does not equal adding a whole new set of capabilities to the workshop.
Old Zhou placed the roster and the toolbox procurement list on the table for comparison. Every wrench, screwdriver, measuring instrument, and operating manual in the toolbox could be called upon by different positions. The people on the roster were roles assembled from these tools, not a separate kind of being.
From then on, Old Zhou set a rule: when discussing workshop capabilities, first look at what is in the toolbox; when discussing role division, then look at the roster. The two ledgers were managed separately, but for the same set of tools.
Later the steward rewrote the roster: those who could do a single step were called hands, and only those who could take on a whole class of roles, leave records, and be assessed on delivery entered the badge roster.